Page 688 – Tom Merritt .com

Today in Tech History – February 4, 2018

Today in Tech History/ Writing / February 4th, 2018

Today in Tech History logo 1890 – Thomas Edison received a patent for the first quadruplex telegraph, which could send two messages simultaneously in each direction. One message consisted of an electric signal of varying strength, while the second was a signal of varying polarity.

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Quadruplex_Telegraph
http://www.google.com/patents?id=SV9BAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

1998 – Noël Godin, a Belgian who made a practice of pie-ing rich and famous people struck a pie against the face of Bill Gates. Gates did not press charges.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-207832.html

2004 – Mark Zuckerberg and a few other guys at Harvard launched TheFacebook so Harvard students can look up and hook up with each other. They would eventually expand the service to the world. And drop the “the”.

https://www.facebook.com/facebook?v=info

2014 – Microsoft named 22-year employee Satya Nadella its new CEO replacing Steve Ballmer. Bill Gates stepped down as Chairman of the Board at the same time and was replaced by John Thompson.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04newspr.aspx

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – February 3, 2018

Today in Tech History/ Writing / February 3rd, 2018

Today in Tech History logo 1879 – Joseph Wilson Swan demonstrated the first practically usable incandescent filament electric light bulb to 700 people at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5197568&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F5176125%2F5197544%2F05197568.pdf%3Farnumber%3D5197568

1966 – The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft landed safely on the moon in the Ocean of Storms. It was the first lunar soft landing and first transmission of photographic data from the Moon to Earth.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1966-006A

2011 – The Number Resource Organization announced that the free pool of available IPv4 addresses was fully depleted. The IANA allocated the last of the blocks equally between the five Regional Internet Registries.

http://www.nro.net/news/ipv4-free-pool-depleted

2014 – Facebook launched its ‘Paper’ app for iOS in the US. Paper provided a more magazine like format for viewing Facebook content.

http://recode.net/2014/01/30/meet-paper-facebooks-answer-to-browsing-and-creating-mobile-media/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3212a – Don’t Put Mouth On My Words

Daily Tech News Show / February 2nd, 2018

We explore the link between AI generated fake porn videos and the future of news and facts. Plus Kaz Hirai steps down as CEO of Sony and CEO Susan Wojcicki explains what YouTube wants.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Nicole Lee.

MP3

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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Quick Hits
- (01:05) Google releases YouTube TV app for Apple TV and Roku | venture beat
- (01:15) Microsoft drops Surface Book 2 price to $1,199 with less storage | the verge
  - Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop is cheaper and slower at $799 | the verge
- (01:50) HQ Trivia is raising $15 million at a valuation of more than $100 million from Founders Fund | recode
- (02:20) Chrome OS 64 rolling out w/ new screenshot shortcut, Android app updates, security patches | 9to5 google
More Top Stories
- (02:40) Apple announces Q1 2018 revenue of $88.3b: 77.3m iPhones, 13.2m iPads, 5.1m Macs | 9to5 mac
  - Apple Watch Sees Best Quarter Ever With Series 3 Sales Up More Than 100% Compared to Series 2 Sales Last Year | mac rumors
  - Wall Street wowed by iPhone X performance, but cools off on expectations of an Apple ‘super cycle’ | apple insider
- China’s Xiaomi back to top five vendor as global smartphone market shrinks | reuters
- (08:05) YouTube’s CEO promises stronger enforcement in the wake of controversies | tech crunch
  - YouTube will start labeling videos from state-funded broadcasters | the verge
- (11:00) Sony CEO Hirai to step down, turnaround ally Yoshida to take helm | reuters
  - Sony reports best-ever third quarter profit, forecasts new annual record | reuters
  - Has the PS4 peaked? Annual console shipments are flat for 2017 | ars technica
  - As Sony CEO Kaz Hirai steps down, the future of some products is in question | ars technica
- (13:50) Intel Is Said to Plan Sale of Majority Stake in AR Glasses Unit | bloomberg
Discussion Story: (16:40) AI-Generated Porn
- Fake porn is the new fake news, and the internet isn’t ready | engadget
- Researchers make a surprisingly smooth artificial video of Obama | engadget
- Lyrebird claims it can recreate any voice using just one minute of sample audio | the verge
- After 20 Minutes of Listening, New Adobe Tool Can Make You Say Anything | motherboard
- Smart 3D modeling lets you mess with faces in videos | engadget
- UAB research finds automated voice imitation can fool humans and machines | UAB
- AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All F**ked | motherboard
- AI-powered face swapping has taken a dystopian turn | engadget
- Experts fear face swapping tech could start an international showdown | the outline
Message of the Day
- (26:05) Brandon – Spotify testing Pandora
Today’s Contributor
- Nicole Lee
  - Engadget

Get Len Peralta‘s “Daily Fake News Show” at his store or by supporting his Patreon

Daily Tech Headlines – 2/2/2018

Daily Tech News Show / February 2nd, 2018

Apple does OK on slowing iPhone sales, Amazon knocks it out of the park and Alphabet has mixed results.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – February 2, 2018

Today in Tech History/ Writing / February 2nd, 2018

Today in Tech History logo 1046 – English monks recorded “no man then alive could remember so severe a winter as this was.” Their analog weather blog entry recorded the beginning of the Little Ice Age.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657

1931 – Friedrich Schmiedl launched the first rocket mail (V-7, Experimental Rocket 7) with 102 pieces of mail between Schöckl and St. Radegund, Austria.
http://www.astronautix.com/s/schmiedl.html

1935 – Detective Leonarde Keeler, co-inventor of the Keeler polygraph, tried out the lie detector on two suspected criminals in Portage, Wisconsin. Both suspects were convicted of assault.

http://www.wired.com/2012/02/0202polygraph-leads-conviction/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3211 – Alphabet Has Problems with Numbers

Daily Tech News Show / February 1st, 2018

Google and 3M have joined the Universal Stylus Initiative. Will this herald a new age of stylus interchangeability between hardware vendors? Plus eBay will end use of PayPal as a back-end payment system in 2020 and YouTube TV is now available on select Roku devices.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, and Justin Robert Young.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Quick Hits
- (01:10) Discord Desktop Apps Gain Deep Spotify Integration, Including Real-Time ‘Listen Along’ Feature | mac rumors
- (01:35) Data-friendly YouTube Go app is available in 130 more countries | engadget
- (01:55) Microsoft extends Windows 10 support period, but makes cuts to Office 2019 | ars technica
More Top Stories
- (02:35) Amazon’s results beat estimates on holiday season boost | reuters
  - Amazon reports nearly $2 billion in profit, blowing past Wall Street expectations for holiday quarter | tech crunch
- (04:10) Alphabet’s earnings miss Wall St. estimates as spending grows | reuters
  - Alphabet is tumbling after a fourth quarter whiff and names John Hennessy as new board chair | tech crunch
- (06:15) Telegram apps fall foul of iOS App Store content rules | tech crunch
- (09:05) YouTube TV available on Roku, coming to Apple TV ‘very soon’ | cnet
- (12:30) Nintendo announces Mario Kart Tour smartphone game | polygon
- (14:20) Instagram’s new ‘type mode’ lets you add text-only pages to your stories | the verge
- (17:50) After 15 years, eBay plans to cut off PayPal as its main payments processor | recode
- (20:50) Google and 3M have joined an initiative working toward an open standard for styluses | the verge
Thing of the Day
- (22:15) John – Galaxy s2 Watch
Message of the Day
- (25:00) Anonymous – Cryptocurrency – related prices
- (26:20) Anonymous – Internet provider strategies
Today’s Contributor
- - - Justin Robert Young

Daily Tech Headlines – February 1, 2018

Daily Tech News Show / February 1st, 2018

Mario Kart Tour in development, YouTube TV comes to Roku, Elon Musk sells out flamethrowers.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

#316 – Why’d Ya Do It, Ernie?

Shows/ Sword and Laser / February 1st, 2018

We share our memories and thoughts on the passing of Ursula K. Leguin. We also talk about how silly it is to think anybody but George R. R. Martin truly knows the release date for Winds of Winter, and discover the true villain of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Today in Tech History – February 1, 2018

Today in Tech History/ Writing / February 1st, 2018

Today in Tech History logo 1951 -TV viewers witnessed the live detonation of an atomic bomb blast, as KTLA in Los Angeles broadcast the explosion of a nuclear device dropped on Frenchman Flats, Nevada.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/02/0201ktla-atomic-test/

1972 – Hewlett-Packard introduced the first scientific handheld calculator, the famous HP-35 for $395. It was the first handheld calculator to perform logarithmic and trigonometric functions with one keystroke.
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/the_hp-35_calculator.html

1985 – Shortly after its founding the November before, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute kicked off operations.
http://www.seti.org/about-us

1997 – Dave Winer changed how he displayed ‘Scripting News’ so that it always showed the last ten days of posts. In other words, the way every blog does it now. Whether this makes it the ‘first blog’ or not, it was extremely influential and is definitely one of the oldest blogs out there, predating the term blog, of course.

http://scripting.com/stories/siteChanges.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3210 – Subscribed to Life

Daily Tech News Show / January 31st, 2018

As boomers and millennials feel the pinch of rising healthcare, insurance and living costs is the future of retail sales and consumer consumption lay in subscription and rental services? Plus Nintendo’s Switch boosts the company’s bottom line by over a 177% and Google wants to tell you when your flight isn’t on time.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Scott Johnson.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!